On Sunday night, a coalition of Democratic senators, weary of the prolonged shutdown, joined Republicans in advancing a legislative measure aimed at reopening the federal government. This 40-day shutdown had left tens of thousands of federal employees without work and caused significant disruptions at airports nationwide.
The Senate approved a motion, with a 60-40 vote, to proceed with a continuing resolution previously passed by the House. This pivotal move marked a significant step towards resolving the shutdown after centrist Democrats reached a funding agreement with Senate Republicans and the White House.
Previously, Senate Democrats had blocked the same House-passed funding bill on 14 different occasions.
However, mounting pressure, particularly from centrist and retiring Democrats, to end the shutdown intensified after the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) funds lapsed on November 1. Furthermore, staff shortages among air traffic controllers led to widespread delays at major airports.
Ultimately, eight Democrats decided to support the House bill.
This group included Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin of Illinois, who plans to retire at the year’s end, as well as Senators Jeanne Shaheen and Maggie Hassan from New Hampshire, and Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia, who represents over 144,000 employees in his state.
Sen. Angus King (I-Maine), an independent who caucuses with Democrats, also voted yes. He worked closely with Shaheen and Hassan to craft the agreement to reopen the government.
Sens. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) and Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) voted to end the shutdown, as well, reflecting the position they’ve held for weeks.
Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.) joined with her home-state colleague, Cortez Masto, in voting for the measure.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) now plans to amend the House-passed legislative vehicle with the compromise deal worked out with Shaheen, Hassan, King and other.
Shaheen, a member of the Appropriations committee, worked with Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Susan Collins (R-Maine), on the funding bills included in the package.
That proposal would fund military construction, veterans’ affairs, the Department of Agriculture and the legislative branch though Sept. 30 of 2026.
It includes a stopgap measure to fund the rest of government through Jan. 30.
The compromise proposal includes language to retain more than 4,000 federal workers targeted for layoffs during the shutdown as well as language to prevent the Trump administration from firing additional federal workers through reductions in force (RIFs) for the length of the newly drafted continuing resolution — until Jan. 30.
Kaine was involved in negotiating the protections for federal workers.
Passage of the bill sets the stage for the House of Representatives to return to Washington after being away for seven weeks to vote to send the legislation to President Trump’s desk.
Thune agreed as part of the broader deal to schedule a vote later this year on legislation to extend the enhanced health insurance premium subsidies under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) that are due to expire in January.
The Senate GOP leader, however, did not guarantee that any bill to extend the subsidies will pass the Senate or — if it passes the upper chamber — get a vote in the House.
Hassan and King focused on getting Thune to agree to a vote in December on extending enhanced health insurance subsidies.
The deal would ensure that a substantial portion of the federal government is funded through Sept. 30 with regular appropriations bills, a top Democratic priority, and it sets the stage for Congress to act on other regular spending bills funding the Department of War and the Department of Health and Human Services.
It was cobbled together after weeks of negotiations between Shaheen, Hassan and King and Republican members of the Appropriations Committee as well as the Senate GOP leadership and the Trump White House.
Sunday’s vote capped weeks of intense negotiations, during which Democratic senators spent many hours in the Capitol basement trying to figure out a way to end the standoff.
Several Democrats who were involved in those talks, including Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.), who played a prominent role, ended up voting against proceeding to the legislative vehicle to reopen the government.
Sens. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.), Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.), Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) and Peter Welch (D-Vt.), who participated in the meetings, also voted no.
Slotkin said she distanced herself from the negotiations when it became clear the deal would not include a language to extend the ACA subsidies in the bill to fund government.
“I was involved for many weeks then over the last couple weeks, it changed. Last week it changed so I wasn’t [involved] in the end game,” she told reporters after a Democratic caucus meeting Sunday evening.
“I always said it’s got to do something concrete on health care and it’s hard to see how that happened,” she said.
